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Chad Weber on How Public Safety Broadband Can Help Rural Law Enforcement

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September 9, 2016
Chad Weber, Public Information Officer, at the Florida Wildlife Conservation, Northeast Region talks about the need to communicate with multiple agencies, especially in rural areas.
Chad Weber, Public Information Officer, at the Florida Wildlife Conservation, Northeast Region talks about the need to communicate with multiple agencies, especially in rural areas.

This blog is the latest in a series on Looking Back and Looking Forward: The Future of Public Safety Communications in the Post 9/11 Era (a video series).

The week before Patriot Day, our nation’s annual remembrance of the 9/11 attacks, first responders share their remembrances and vision for the future of public safety communications in this video series.

We kicked off the series on Wednesday with Mike Worrell, Senior Fire Advisor, FirstNet, who outlined the communication issues he faced as a first responder on 9/11 at the World Trade Center.

Yesterday, we heard from Mike Duyck, Fire Chief, Tualatin Valley (Oregon) Fire and Rescue, who shared how the events of 9/11 showed him the intense need for fully integrated, fully coordinated, interoperable communications – with the network bandwidth to back it up.

Today, we hear from Chad Weber, Public Information Officer, Florida Wildlife Conservation, Northeast Region.

“Being able to talk to multiple agencies in such a big disaster is a big priority" Chad Weber

As a U.S. Marine and now as Public Information Officer for Florida Wildlife Conservation (FWC), Northeast Region, Chad Weber knows what it’s like not to have the communications and connection with public safety that first responders need in emergencies and for day-to-day response.

“Being able to talk to multiple agencies in such a big disaster is a big priority… [On 9/11], a lot of people were operating on their own radios or talk groups, and you couldn’t hear what they were doing,” says Weber in the video below.

FWC officers protect fish and wildlife, keep waterways safe for millions of boaters and cooperate with other law enforcement agencies providing homeland security. FWC law enforcement officers are among the first on the scene to help when natural disasters occur, because of its specialized equipment to access remote, hard-to-reach locations.

Because most FWC officers patrol remote areas by themselves, “having full-strength bars on my phone … or even the laptop in my truck would make it a lot easier,” says Weber. Click on the video below to learn how Weber sees FirstNet helping those living and vacationing around Florida’s waterways by providing secure, dedicated connection among FWC, the Coast Guard, and local responding agencies and municipalities.

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